In the completing stage of God’s full salvation the believers will be raptured. In this message and in the message following we shall consider in a brief and simple way the rapture of the believers, which is the third item of the believers’ future in the completing stage of God’s salvation, the stage of glorification.
Being glorified, redeemed in our body, and raptured are actually three aspects of one thing. To be glorified is to be redeemed in our body, and to be redeemed in our body is to be raptured.
The subject of the believers’ rapture is a great matter in the Bible. Although the rapture is emphasized strongly in the New Testament, it is somewhat difficult for us to understand. During the past century and a half, the rapture has been a troublesome subject for many seeking Christians. Mainly there are three schools of understanding concerning the rapture: the school of pre-tribulation, the school of post-tribulation, and the school of the so-called partial rapture. Those of the pre-tribulation school say that our rapture will take place before the great tribulation which, strictly speaking, will be the last three and a half years of this age. (These three and a half years will be the second half of the last week of the seventy weeks revealed in Daniel 9.) The second school, the school of post-tribulation, says that the rapture will take place at the end of the great tribulation. Those in the school of partial rapture say that the overcomers will be raptured earlier than the majority of the believers. The Bible teachers in this school include G. H. Pember, Robert Govett, and D. M. Panton. Those in this last school have seen many details concerning the Lord’s coming back and our rapture. These teachers say that, according to the New Testament, the believers who are overcomers and mature earlier will be raptured before the great tribulation, but the remainder of the believers will pass through most of the tribulation so that they may be helped to mature. Then those believers will be raptured close to the end of the great tribulation.
In the Bible there are two main aspects of the rapture: the rapture of the overcomers and the rapture of the majority of the believers. However, the fact that there are these two aspects of the rapture does not mean that there are only two raptures. With the rapture of the overcomers, for instance, there are at least three categories: the rapture of the man-child (Rev. 12:5), the rapture of the firstfruit (Rev. 14:1-5), and the rapture of the later overcomers, who will overcome Antichrist, his mark, the number of his name, and his image (Rev. 15:2-4).
The rapture of the overcomers is the first category of rapture, and the rapture of the majority of believers, considered in Revelation 14:15 as the harvest, is the second. In Leviticus 23:10 we have a type of the rapture-the type of crops ripening in the field. Some crops ripen earlier and others ripen later. Those that ripen first are considered the firstfruit. In Old Testament times the firstfruit was brought not to the barn but to the temple of God. Exodus 23:19 says, “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God.” The firstfruit was brought from the field into the temple of God for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction. When the field was completely ripe, that was the time of the harvest. After the harvest was reaped, it was brought into the barn. The crop is God’s people (1 Cor. 3:9), and the first of the crop to ripen is the firstfruit, which will be brought directly to God’s temple in the heavens. Later, after all the crop has ripened, the majority of the believers will be harvested and taken to the air (1 Thes. 4:15-17).
Although many Bible teachers have written about the rapture, most of them have not taken care of this matter of the ripening of God’s crop. In Matthew 13 the Lord Jesus revealed that He came to sow seed into the field. Eventually, in Revelation 14 we have the firstfruit and the harvest. This gives us the basic concept with respect to the rapture-that there is a rapture of the firstfruit and the rapture of the harvest, the majority of the believers who are alive at the time of the Lord’s coming back.
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